Joe Klein Clutches His Pearls

Dan Riehl:

Ever notice how [some] liberals talk tough and pretend to be looking for a fight, then turn into whiny little biatches the minute you hit back?

Yes, I have and it doesn't matter what the topic is.

However, in this case the liberal in question is Joe Klein and the topic is John McCain. Specifically, Klein refers to McCain's words today regarding Barack Obama's...nuanced...approach to determining whether the Surge tactic has served its purpose or not as a 'meltdown.' Really? To me, 'meltdown' equals crazy and/or mind-bogglingly illogical. Were McCain's words either of those? Let's see if this is so.

In response to Obama's admission that, knowing what he knows now, he would have still been against the Surge prior to its onset, McCain comes to a conclusion about his opponent:

This is a clear choice that the American people have. I had the courage and the judgment to say I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.

Is this reasonable? Or is it "scurrillous?"

Obama's advisers have surmised that if their candidate admits error about his judgment in the matter, his base--the anti-warriors of the hard Left--will turn against him. In addition, the advisers are worried about those delegates to the Democrat National Convention--Hillary Clinton hasn't released hers yet. Who knows what would happen to them were Obama to repudiate his previous position regarding Iraq? (Notice I said that these are the advisers' concerns. The candidate himself isn't sweating this stuff.)

And then there's the fact that, in 2005, Obama was against withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Interviewer: But you said that troops should be withdrawn.

Obama: No, no. I’ve never said that troops should be withdrawn. What I’ve said is that we’ve got to make sure that we secure and execute the rebuilding and reconstruction process effectively and properly and I don’t think we should have an artificial deadline when to do that. What’s important is that we have a long-term plan in process and short-term security strategy.

(Emphasis mine.)

It's quite reasonable to conclude that Senator Obama would say anything to get elected, regardless of the effect that his words might have on the outcome of world-changing events--like wars. He has proved that he has no problem with contradicting himself without offering an explanation for the contradiction.

Klein:

Readers should note that I said that I can't remember a more scurrilous statement by a major party candidate. Smart politicians leave the scurrilous stuff to their aides; in fact, a McCain spokesman expressed these words almost exactly on July 14. There is a reason why politicians who want to be President don't say these sort of things: It isn't presidential.

So, according to Klein, it's a "meltdown" because it isn't presidential. Whether it's a reasonable conclusion, whether it's the truth, is irrelevant.

That's politics, I suppose.

Then again, Klein's overreaction probably has much simpler explanation. He is probably just angry because someone said something bad about his savior. I understand that, since I get angry when someone slanders my Savior.

But it isn't slander if it's true, now is it?

(Thanks to Blackfive and to Richard Fernandez)

Comments

[Venomous Kate]

When Obama's flip-flops (and refusal to acknowledge or explain them) are so blatant now, when he's trying to get elected, what do his supporters think they're going to be like if he gets into the Oval Office?

By then it'll be too late to do anything to about his lack of integrity.

[Phelps]

Kerry 2.0

[ScheisterFinder]

baldilocks:The reason that I leave the following tripe up unedited is to 1) demonstrate what contortions some people will twist themselves into in order to justify their way of thinking, 2) point out the narcissism of those who assume that no one could think differently from them unless the other person it getting paid to have a different opinion, and 3) underscore the cowardice of those who bluster anonymously to those who have protected their right to do so.

Are you triple dipping, i.e., military retirement, disability, and paid shill for 'milblogs'? How pathetic, just how sickeningly pathetic does one have to be to do what you do?

mcchurian has his foot in his mouth for a full 2 decades, now more than ever, and you choose, you actually choose to cater to the criminal who'll lead America yet further down the wrong path, according to polls (70+ percent believe so). It's amazing, truly amazing that anyone would compare integrity levels, knowledge levels of the war (crashing five jets didn't make mcchurian a knowledgeable officer, just like graduating 5th from the bottom out of 900 students), character levels, illegalities (kemper marley, meyer lansky syndicate and the hensley fortune, gained by cindy's daddy doing jail time for covering up for organized crime), and just plain "does he make sense when he talks?" between mcchurian and obama.

I didn't think people could sink to such lows with fake ideals vs. what's good for their country, countrypersons, and the long-standing future, but Mencken was right: nobody'll go broke overestimating the intelligence of boobus Americanus.

Shill away, doll, shill away. I can see the deathbed: Jesus Christ, did I really try to pull the wool over the eyes of unsuspecting readers for THAT long? How godamned ill-equipped to be an American was I?

baldilocks: Those last lines won't get you into Hell, Scheiβer Remnants, so you can relax.

[Tully]

(LOL. It's obviously not true that they only come out at night--you can also watch them scuttle around when you kick over a rock or two.)

Klein also was against the surge, which explains much. He certainly has a very short and extremely selective memory if that's the most scurrilous thing he can remember coming from a candidate.

What some of us noticed long ago is becoming more and more obvious--the ObaMessiah® is an empty suit, a hollow man, a do-anything say-anything poseur lacking in any ethics or principles at all.

[me aka]

McSame doesn't know the difference between a Shia and a Sunni, thought Iran and AQ were working together until his buddy Lieberman corrected him on national television, has stated that he would keep the US armed forces fighting in Iraq for a century, is now following Obama's lead on time tables for withdrawl Iraq(just like Bush is following Obama), has flip flopped on.. well pretty much everything and you are trying to make a point about Obama and "the Surge". Even the Prime Minister of Iraq, Bush's hand picked puppet, have set McSame straight on his "Surge" delusion.
http://www.observer.com/2008/politics/nouri-al-maliki-and-death-mccains-iraq-argument
and there are so many new stories just like that.

Where are the WMD's or Osama dead or alive, etc?